In an interview with Politico, Carlson said that The Daily Caller will not be tied to ideology but rather will be "breaking stories of importance". In a Washington Post article, Carlson said "We're not enforcing any kind of ideological orthodoxy on anyone."[12] In an interview with The New York Times, Carlson said that the vast majority of traditional reporting comes from a liberal point of view and called The Daily Caller's reporting "the balance against the rest of the conventional press".[13]

The FBI investigated the allegations and found no evidence to substantiate them, though it led to scrutiny of Menendez's relationship with the donor.[21][22] Subsequently, one of the women who accused Menendez stated that she had been paid to falsely implicate the senator, whom she had never met.[18][22] Menendez's office described the allegations as "manufactured" by a right-wing blog as a politically motivated smear.[23] On March 18, police in the Dominican Republic announced that three women had acknowledged they had been paid $300–425 each to lie about having had sex with Menendez.[24]

According to a spokesperson in the Dominican government, the women in question claimed to be paid to make the false claims in question by someone who identified himself as a Daily Caller employee. The Daily Caller issued a statement denying the claims.[25]The Daily Caller denied having paid any individuals for any participation in the stories about Menendez, and detailed the discrepancies between the new reports from Dominican authorities and the original interviews the outlet had conducted.[26][27][28] Erik Wemple, an opinion blogger for the Washington Post, was critical of the Caller's "eagerness to publish completely unsubstantiated allegations", concluding that the Caller was "ducking accountability".[29][30][31]